Ignition delay times of C1–C7 natural gas blends in the intermediate and high temperature regimes: Experiment and correlation

Abstract

This study presents new ignition delay time data for two multi-component natural gas (NG) blends composed of C1–C7n-alkanes with methane as the major component. New experimental data were recorded using a high-pressure shock tube (HPST) at reflected shock pressures (p5) of 10–30 bar, at temperatures (T5) in the range 770–1480 K, and at equivalence ratios (φ) of 0.5–1.5 in ‘air’. The current results together with published rapid compression machine (RCM) measurements show that higher concentrations of larger molecular weight n-alkanes in the NG blends increase fuel reactivity by more than an order of magnitude with mixtures that have ∼18.75% of C3–C5 components compared to mixtures that have ∼44.4% of C3–C7 components at temperatures below 1000 K. On the contrary, at higher temperatures the effect of increasing reactivity is reduced. NUIGMech1.2 is used to simulate the conditions studied and shows good agreement with the experimental ignition delay time data. A correlation equation is developed through regression analyses using NUIGMech1.2 to predict ignition delay times for a wide range of C1–C7 NG mixtures, in the pressure range 10–50 bar, at temperatures in the range 950–2000 K, and at φ = 0.3–3.0 in air. The proposed correlation expression that employs a traditional Arrhenius form is successfully validated against the new experimental data as well as previously published HPST experimental data.